In the run-up to Sunday’s election in Crimea, the East and West are in a tug-of-war over Nazi provocation.

“While American politicians describe (Russian President) Vladimir Putin as Hitler-like, Russians in Crimea are convinced the real neo-Nazis are pulling the levers in Kiev,” said Edward Lozansky, president of the American University in Moscow.

“Hard-line anti-Russians occupy important ministerial positions in the new Ukrainian government,” Lozansky wrote in the Washington Times Wednesday.

Sensing that largely Russian Crimea will side with Moscow, the United States and European nations said they would not recognize a secessionist vote.

"Given the lack of adequate preparation and the intimidating presence of Russian troops, it would be a deeply flawed process which would have no moral force," according to a statement issued by the Group of Seven, which consists of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Lozansky said Western leaders are being hypocritical.

“Not so long ago, (U.S. President Barack) Obama hailed the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as an example of “the power of human dignity,” he recalled.

“Well, say the Russians, don’t the people of Crimea deserve the same right to determine their own future?” Lozansky asks.

Although former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has likened Putin to Adolf Hitler for sending forces into heavily Russian enclaves of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, former Democratic presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche says Clinton has it backwards.

“There is no evidence to support the assertion that the current government of Ukraine is legitimate. It is a government brought in by a coup d’etat, carried out by a Nazi grouping supported by the Obama administration and other NATO nations.

“The real government of Ukraine is in exile, without power at the moment,” LaRouche said.

LaRouche condemns what he calls the West’s policy of “Eurasian encirclement,” with U.S. and NATO military forces surrounding Russia.

“It was Obama’s own assistant secretary of state of European and Eurasian affairs, Victoria Nuland, who openly intervened in Ukrainian politics and conspired to bring in the current (Arseniy) Yatsenyuk government – which contains at least eight members of outright fascist groups,” he said.

“Now, the Obama administration is putting the United States on the course of war with Russia.”

Crimea, home to Russia's only warm-water port, has long been a key strategic beachhead. In the 1960s, Soviet boss Nikita Khrushchev "gave" Crimea to Ukraine. But Russians have continued to control the region, anchoring thousands of military vessels there.

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Kenric Ward is a national correspondent and chief of the Virginia Bureau for Watchdog.org. Formerly a reporter and editor at two Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers, Kenric has won dozens of state and national news awards for investigative articles ranging from business to education to politics. Kenric's most recent book is "Saints in Babylon: Mormons and Las Vegas." @KenricWard